Berlin police arrest 'Canadian Psycho' suspect

Police in Berlin on Monday arrested a man suspected of being the "Canadian Psycho", who is thought to have killed and chopped up his lover and filmed the attack, a spokesman said.

04.06.2012

(AFP) Police in Berlin on Monday arrested a man suspected of being the "Canadian Psycho", who is thought to have killed and chopped up his lover and filmed the attack, a spokesman said.

The police spokesman confirmed Luka Rocco Magnotta, a 29-year-old Canadian gay former porn star, was picked up by authorities in an Internet cafe in Neukoelln, a working-class district of Berlin.

"I can confirm that the person arrested was the wanted Magnotta," the police spokesman told AFP.

French police had said earlier Monday they were checking whether Magnotta may have fled Paris for other parts of France or Europe through an international bus station.

One employee at the station claimed to have seen Magnotta board a bus to Berlin on Friday night while another said someone bearing a close resemblance to the suspect had boarded a bus for Romania.

Magnotta has been dubbed the Canadian Psycho by the press because a video circulating online and believed to be linked to him shows one man stab another with an ice pick and dismember him while a song from the film "American Psycho" plays in the background.

Interpol on Thursday issued a Red Notice wanted-persons alert for Magnotta, also known as Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov, to its 190 member countries after a video of the grisly killing surfaced online.

The murder came to light when Canadian police said Tuesday that a human foot had been sent to the headquarters of Canada's ruling Conservative Party.

The victim, a student identified as Lin Jun, had been "in a relationship" with the porn star, according to Montreal police.